The mission of the Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The Pacific Southwest Region’s goal is to retain and restore ecological resilience of the National Forest lands to achieve sustainable ecosystems that provide a broad range of services to humans and other organisms. Ecologically healthy and resilient land-scapes, rich in biodiversity, have greater capacity to adapt and thrive in the face of natural disturbances and large scale threats to sustainability, especially under changing and uncertain future environmental conditions such as those driven by climate change and increasing human use.

Wilderness and Ecological Restoration

Nearly one quarter of the National Forest System lands managed by the Pacific Southwest Region are within designated wilderness, therefore wilderness lands represent an essential component for achieving success with ecological restoration goals. Wilderness provides important protection for watersheds, wildlife corridors and can serve as connectors linking larger protected landscape mosaics, which are critical to sustaining viable, resilient ecosystems in the face of climate change. These areas provide essential ecosystem services including clean air, clean water, and diverse wildlife habitat. Wilderness lands can also serve as a baseline for scientists tracking changes caused by climate change.

Many activities in wilderness support ecosystem management and restoration. For example, monitoring of sensitive receptors for changes to air quality allows managers to understand air quality trends both within wilderness and in surrounding communities; identification and removal of non-native invasive plants contributes to restoration of watersheds by allowing native species to flourish and provide important wildlife habitat; monitoring, rehabilitating or relocating trails and campsites can improve long-term sustainability and minimize adverse effects of recreation on water quality. Ecosystem management and restoration activities like these may benefit from utilizing pack stock to support transportation of tools, equipment and materials into the wilderness.

Programs Supported

The Pack Stock Center of Excellence (COE) is available to provide support to a variety of resource and trail projects to restore ecological resilience within wilderness. Programs that have worked with the COE in the past include:

• Botany
• Heritage
• Range Monitoring
• Watershed
• Recreation
• Fisheries
• Wildlife
• Air Resources
• Trails
• Fire Management
• Research
• Law Enforcement